dexstar

To be fair to Tekno Team 2000, maybe we haven't reached the year those become fashionable yet.

Fair point, but given all the injuries and the general dearth of stars on the main roster you gotta believe they'll be looking to poach from NXT soon, and they don't have much depth in the singles ranks. Now that they've established some tag teams they need to focus on singles guys. The idea is to have depth at NXT for when the need arises up at WWE level, and right now, the need has arisen. Definitely agree. And then to confuse us armchairs more, they announce a slew of NXT Live dates in the Midwest for January, presumably the first of many such tours. So I'd have to guess that guys like Finn aren't going up to the main roster anytime soon unless they plan on the name NXT being the draw. Is it even 'developmental' anymore?

I don't disagree, but with the tag teams you mention and the deep women's division, there hasn't been all that much time to focus on men's singles outside of the title program lately. Whether that's by design due to lack of depth or not, who knows. I think over the next year you'll certainly see one of those two divisions go down a notch in prominence and the singles move back up. Unless they make NXT a 3 hour show too.

Three guys holding Roman (Barrett won't be there because it's Barrett) while Stephanie cheerleads and Serious Business HHH dramatically unbuttons his dress shirt while screaming in Reigns battered face.

True. The jacket thing was worse than the singlet:

Is JJ Aztec warrior better or worse? http://photos.imageevent.com/sharpshootercollectibles/wwewwfpromophotos/Jeff%20Jarrett%20P-434.jpg

Didn't Savage switch to the body suits to hide how small he got when he got off the gas? My vote for worst ring attire goes to Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart in 1998 WCW. He wore that Hart Foundation leather jacket from the WWF the previous year and the logo had flaked or peeled off in patches. It's what you'd expect to see at a tiny local indy show, not on a major cable program from a national promotion. Triple H's old purple vinyl tights from the fall of 1998 were pretty awful, too. Yeah I'm sure that's why Savage did it. I don't hate some of them, just when he goes overboard with the tassels like that Jannetty pic earlier. Speaking of HHH, I think he was wearing these due to a groin/thigh injury of some sort, but it just didn't work:

Beefcake fit the gimmick, and started ok, but by the end of his 80s run those pants were really getting unsettling. I always thought Jannety looked ridiculous in the mega tassel overload rockers gear he would wear in the 90s. Probably not bad enough for worst but Savage seemed much cooler before he got the tassel bug and full bodysuits. I'm thinking the WM X gear. Modern day... I think it's part of his gimmick ... but Bo Dallas with the all white and the recent weight gain is not a pleasing sight.

Ole has been on the move lately. Grumpy dude runs out his welcome fast. Good catch on Carson. I don't know if it matters but Ventura is working almost exclusively as a manager and announcer, but since I won't rule out him wrestling. The reason I ask is I'm not entirely clear on how we are going to deal with him jn the game world - my assumption is he moves to a non-wrestling character like he did in real life but don't know the date on that.

Just finished Gary Hart's book so seeing Kabuki was a nice treat. The big show coming up looks great and this promotion is really rolling.

If you worked for Vince you'd be out on the street for that

Is the oft-repeated nugget that Slim Jim demanded Halloween Havoc feature Savage-Hogan true?

No changes to BTW Edit: Jumped the gun - we traded for Ole in the draft, so stick him on that blank 25 line.

Not a member but I'm calling the police regarding Florida promoters plotting the death of one of their wrestlers

Love the format. Great feel to the shows. Made me want to put in a lipper and throw some beer at the birds.

Big Time Wrestling - Aired 12/3/1983 (“Free for All” by Ted Nugent plays as shots of Detroit are mixed with shots of Greg Valentine, Rick Martel, Dick Murdoch, Jesse Ventura, Chicky Starr, Ivan Koloff and others … ending with footage of Valentine holding the Heavyweight Championship high in Cobo Arena) Lord Layton : Welcome everyone to another episode of Big Time Wrestling, here at the Michigan State Fair Coliseum. We’ve got another great night of action here tonight, although I’m having trouble finding the official form… (Layton is interrupted by Jesse “The Body” Ventura , new BTW Heavyweight Champion Greg Valentine, and “The Mechanic” Jesse Barr) Layton : What’s the meaning of this? Jesse : I’ll tell ya what the meaning is, Lord Loser. As the representative of the only true Union in professional wrestling, I’ve made some deals with the board room here in Big Time Wrestling - you’re looking at the new color commentator and your partner, The Body! And you would have known that if you’d taken the time to read your format instead of spending an hour in makeup tonight Layton protests - he doesn’t have a format - and Barr taunts him with a folder. I should have known you had a hand in that! Jesse : My mistake, Layton. Since you don’t know what’s going on, I’m gonna have to do this on my own. First, you’ll see we’ve got a suit dummy from the offices here to make an announcement. Someone get suit dummy out here! Suit Dummy : First, Big Time Wrestling would like to congratulate Greg “The Hammer” Valentine on his coronation as our first Heavyweight Champion. As you’ve seen in the local papers, Dick Murdoch was named the number one contender by our board. However, upon further consideration, there are grave concerns among the board about the integrity of a matchup between Mr. Valentine and Mr. Murdoch. We’ve negotiated with their official representative Jesse Ventura, and have come to an agreement that includes Mr. Murdoch passing on the matchup, leaving Mr. Valentine without a mandatory challenger for the Cobo Arena event on December 31st. As part of this agreement, Mr. Murdoch and his partner will be given a bye into the second round of the BTW Tag Team Title tournament. This tournament will take place beginning on the 12/22 event here at the Coliseum with an 8 team first round. The following week the winners of those bouts will take on four teams who have been chosen to receive byes, including Mr. Murdoch and partner. At the Cobo Arena on New Years Eve, the four remaining teams will conclude the tournament and a new championship team will be crowned. We’ll announce brackets for this event in the following weeks. As for Mr. Valentine, he will have a title match at this event. The BTW board has decided that next week, here at the Coliseum, #2 contender Fidel Sierra will face #3 contender Rick Martel in a title eliminator bout, with the winner receiving a championship shot on the New Year’s Eve card. With the preliminaries out of the way, Jesse gloats, the Hammer looks smug, and we head to the ring for our first match of the night. Layton also announces our main event of the evening - Bob Backlund vs. Alexis Smirnoff! Layton wants to get a quick word with his new partner Jesse and his mechanic. He wonders if Jesse Barr is going to be Dick Murdoch’s tag partner in the tournament. Ventura denies this - The Mechanic has to be available to fix problems all over, not focusing on a tag team. He’s got a partner for Dick, and we’ll meet him soon enough - when Dick returns from Japan. Layton asks The Body if Dick even knows about what has happened here in Detroit while he is in Japan, and Ventura quickly assures him he knows all he needs to know. It’s not over for Tiger, though. Christy doesn’t snap Steele back, and he continues on the offensive, pummeling a helpless Conway until Rocky Johnson comes flying out of the back. He’s not happy about his loss to Steele and starts firing off shots at him - but it only slows Steele down. Christy enters the ring and again blasts Johnson with a cane from behind, just like Cobo, and then leads the Animal back into his trance and back to the locker room. Jesse Ventura gets a quick word with Somers & Bass after the match. “Pretty Boy” Doug Somers guarantees that he and his partner are ready for the tournament and the odds-on favorites. They’ll have the belts, the ladies, and the money. Bobby Bass interjects - he’s tired of people calling him “No Class Bass”. This is the Motor City, and he’s “Best in Class Bobby Bass” - ask your old lady about how much class he has. The Magic Hour w/ Paul Christy (and George Steele) featuring Ivan Koloff & Alexis Smirnoff Christy, looking a bit ruffled from the events with Johnson and Conway earlier, welcomes out the big Russians. Uncle Ivan seems upset at Alexis. He wants to know what he was doing getting kicked out of the title match to leave him against Valentine and Ventura. Alexis protests, and they seem to be doing ok. Alexis has strong words for Bob Backlund - Mother Russia will reassert herself tonight and it starts with chump Backlund. Chicky grabs the mic on his way back. He’s not happy about Rick Martel getting the title eliminator shot over him, but since it’s against Fidel, all's well that ends well. He’s sure Sierra can take care of Rick and they’ll get the gold one way or another. We end the show with Jesse Ventura promising it doesn’t matter who wins the big title eliminator next week, Greg will take care of them no matter what!

Guerrors vs Fabs would have been tremendous. Was hoping Race and Bock would go the full 60 but perhaps another time!

Which was helped a great deal by Dana's gasp and "oh shit" face immediately afterwards. Absolutely. So simple and effective. I was somewhat skeptical about how Asuka would work but I've enjoyed everything they've done. Heel Emma has also been a great rejuvenation for her.

Asuka getting distracted by Emma's music but winning calmly with a head kick KO instead of losing by flash roll up was a nice little subversion of a common Raw finish

What if there were 2 or 3 "fresh face" drafts per year? Like, all the rookies from Jan/Feb/March/April go into that May 1 draft? And then another one in the fall? Plus I'm assuming there'll be some turnover in promotions and writers over the course of the next five months, it's only natural. You could combine that fresh face draft with a dispersal of dead promotions draft (if necessary) as well.

If Hogan was so against the violence against women, why didn't he do anything when Honky knocked down Liz?

For everyone - I'm going to try and do monthly PWI style mag covers (not the stories, just the cover) and am going to do the first one when the draft is over. Should be able to work everyone in to it in some form, so if you have a story headline or specific angle you want to push through that, PM me and let me know.

Catching up on Breaking Ground which ties in a bit with that social media discussion. Guys like New Day were posting pretty amazing Instagram and social content on their own long before this run ... imagine if they harnessed some of that creativity running through the roster (Becky, Owens, others are also pretty entertaining outside the Raw environment) and did something like kayfabe Breaking Ground on the Network? I'd love to see a day in the life of Rusev/Lana in character, New Day in character during their travels, Kevin Owens being a jackass to parking attendants, etc.

I guess you could inherit him as a figure head. That would be an interesting turn of the tide lol. We're having a hard enough time drawing a nice house after his reign of terror